Frickie Van Hardenburg

Frickie Van Hardenburg (died 2008) was a South African arms dealer who was believed to have supplied weapons and drugs to African warlords and brutal dictators. He was killed when his yacht was blown up off the coast of New York City in 2008.

Biography
Frickie Van Hardenburg was born in South Africa, and he made a career for himself as an arms dealer. Van Hardenburg was accused of illegal weapons smuggling, gem dealing, the slave trade, and drug trafficking, as he sold guns to warlords in Sierra Leone and Liberia, moved conflict diamonds out of Africa and into European markets, exported Asian and African slaves to other countries, and imported drugs into the United States. When Van Hardenburg arrived in New York City in 2008, several Democratic Party politicians voiced their opinion that Van Hardenburg should be tried for war crimes, but Van Hardenburg had connections to Republican Party politicians, having gone on a safari with some key Republican leaders. Van Hardenburg would hold a meeting aboard a yacht to the south of New York Harbor one spring day, where he advertised the Buzzard attack chopper to several potential buyers. However, Luis Fernando Lopez boarded the yacht and stole the chopper, and he proceeded to sink the boat using the chopper's missiles.